It’s all about perception, really. One man’s frivolous five minutes and three seconds is another man’s absolute dead center core.

“We all create our own attitude and identity,” Pat Fitzgerald says.

Pat Fitzgerald was a hard-nosed linebacker when he helped carry Northwestern to the Rose Bowl. He's headed in that direction again, this time taking the team to new heights as one of the Big Ten's elite coaches. (AP Photo)

The attitude of a man who wakes every morning in awe of what life has become: a feel-good story of local boy does good, right down to marrying his high school sweetheart and raising three young boys in the city that stole his heart years ago.

The identity of a coach who, at 38 years young, already is the winningest coach in Northwestern history—and already has told numerous suitors that, yes, he has his dream job, thank you. And no, he’s not interested in anything else.

So when the subject veers to that precarious 5:03 from last season; those collective lost minutes in deflating late-game losses to Michigan, Penn State and Nebraska that became the difference between a good season and an unbeaten one, it should come as no surprise that the man who created his attitude and identity long ago has it all figured out.

“We can look at it one of two ways,” Fitzgerald said. “'Wow, we really missed out on something—or, 'Wow, look how close we really are.'”

Take a stab in the dark at which one Fitzgerald, tough-as-nails linebacker for Northwestern not long ago, relentlessly positive and meticulous coach in Evanston the last seven years, chooses to embrace?

“That 5:03 gives us confidence this year,” said Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter. “We know what we can do. There should be no holding back.”

So while everyone outside Northwestern sees this spunky, overachieving program and thinks it maxed out against a watered-down Big Ten and a fortunate conference schedule rotation, everyone wearing purple is thinking big.

You say Northwestern avoided Ohio State and Wisconsin last season; they say the Buckeyes and Badgers now have a tough team on their schedules. You say Northwestern flew under the radar last year; they say they played the games on the schedule.

When Fitzgerald was a star at Carl Sandburg High School in suburban Chicago, his coach Tom Seliga used to preach that you earn respect by the way you play. You lie in the weeds and let attitude and action speak.

Only, sometimes enough is enough. Northwestern was the only Big Ten team to beat the mighty SEC in a bowl game, the program's first bowl victory since 1949. Northwestern was the only BCS school to play three BCS teams in non-conference games last year—nine-win Vanderbilt from the SEC, Syracuse and Boston College—and won all three.

Northwestern was literally a handful of plays—forget five minutes and three seconds; we’re talking plays—from being unbeaten. So when the 2013 schedule with more bite becomes the focal point, can you really blame Fitzgerald for straying from his mentor's lay-low philosophy?

You have to play Ohio State and Wisconsin this year, Fitzy.

“They have to play us, too,” Fitzgerald says.

Now you know why Fitzgerald told Michigan no. Why he told Notre Dame no thanks and Penn State the same thing.

Why year after year, bigger-name schools continue to take shots at prying Chicago’s son from its broad shoulders, and none succeed. Why year after year, Fitzgerald and his staff recruit better and better classes—despite strict academic requirements few staffs deal with—and the program just gets stronger and stronger.

Last year wasn’t a fluke, wasn’t some one-shot deal where the planets aligned and the Wildcats got lucky and the next thing you know, they’re celebrating breaking college football’s longest postseason losing streak. It was hard work and it was rewarding.

They battled through significant injuries, used two quarterbacks, used Colter everywhere possible on the field and earned every last tear of joy shed in the postgame locker room after beating Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl. That’s why the end was as much a celebration as it was, in Fitzgerald’s words, a “funeral.”

The unique group of fifth-year seniors and seniors who had accomplished so much for the program; who bought in to everything Fitzgerald sold after two shaky seasons as Randy Walker’s successor; were part of 40 wins over the last five years.

They extended the school record with their fifth straight bowl appearance. They beat No. 4 Iowa in Iowa City in 2009, and gave up a big lead to Auburn in an Outback Bowl loss. They beat No. 9 Nebraska in Lincoln in 2011, and lost to Texas A&M in a bowl game.

So after leading three teams deep into the fourth quarter and coming up 5:03 short of winning every last stinking game, you better believe routing Mississippi State and winning 10 games for only the third time in school history meant something.

It meant everything.

“Yeah, it was a funeral in that locker room,” Fitzgerald said. “But it was also a birth.”

Nearly 20 years ago, Fitzgerald led a ragtag, overachieving group of players who did the unthinkable and won the Big Ten and played in the Rose Bowl. He was an All-American linebacker for those 'Cats; the heart and foundation of a team that flashed brightly but couldn’t sustain.

Now they’ve won 40 games in five years. Now they’re building and winning and minutes away from the improbable.

They’ve created the identity. Now it’s time for attitude to take over.

“I believe we’re as close as we’ve ever been,” Fitzgerald said. “We’re a big-time program and we’re gaining. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be than with these guys.”